Celebrity Buzz: Nicki Minaj shakes up BET Awards; Pippa talks

By Skip Wood
1404154817000

Nicki Minaj performs at the BET Awards at the Nokia Theatre on Sunday, June 29, 2014, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP).

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NICKI MINAJ SHAKES UP BET AWARDS: Takes playful shot at Iggy Azalea, per the Los Angeles Times, “If Sunday’s BET Awards served as “the black World Cup” -- as the evening’s host, Chris Rock, put it in his introductory monologue -- then Nicki Minaj was the Netherlands, waiting until the very end of the nearly four-hour show to score. You could see her setting up her game-winning goal earlier, when Iggy Azalea came onstage to perform her hit “Fancy” and a reaction shot of Minaj in the audience showed the rapper primping exaggeratedly. Was she enjoying Azalea’s performance? Making fun of it? It wasn’t clear.

“Until it was. Accepting the award for best female hip-hop artist, the final prize handed out Sunday, Minaj used her time at the podium to take a masterful dig at Azalea, whose ascent this year evidently feels like a threat to the more established artist. “What I want the world to know about Nicki Minaj is when you hear Nicki Minaj spit, Nicki Minaj wrote it,” she said, an only slightly veiled reference to rumors that Azalea doesn’t write her own material. Then, just in case we didn’t get it, she primped some more, mimicking Azalea’s signature gestures with a precision that Minaj’s former acting teachers might have admired.” http://lat.ms/1k6AuRb{ }

PIPPA TALKS: And sits on her famous behind, per Celebuzz!, “It’s been more than three years since the world first met Pippa Middleton in her royal bridesmaid dress. Now, the 30-year-old sister of the Duchess of Cambridge is talking about that dress for the first time on television. “In a chat that aired Monday morning on The Today Show, the younger Middleton admitted the attention caught her a little off guard. “It was completely unexpected,” she told Matt Lauer. “I think the plan was not really for it to be a significant dress, really. Just to sort of blend in with the train.” ’’ http://celeb.bz/V39I6H

BOBBY WOMACK: Obit, per Rolling Stone, “Soul-music genius Bobby Womack had talent to burn — and he burned it. He was in the first rank of songwriters, penning classics such as "It's All Over Now," which became the Rolling Stones' first Number One single in the UK. He was a top-notch guitarist, backing up everyone from Ray Charles to Aretha Franklin.

“And when he sang on his own records, he could compel you to get on your feet ("Looking for a Love"), reinvent standards as R&B anthems ("Fly Me to the Moon") or express yearning like nobody else ("Across 110th Street").” http://rol.st/1lJYXAr

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Transformers rules, per The Hollywood Reporter, “It's official: Paramount's Transformers: Age of Extinction is the year's first movie to hit $100 million in its domestic launch. Final weekend numbers were tallied Monday, backing up the studio's Sunday estimate of $100 million. Rival studios, however, contend the movie came in closer to $98 million.” http://bit.ly/1r6SRNy

PRINCE HARRY: Shakes his bones, per People, “TV repairman. Dancer. Prince Harry's trip to Chile has revealed a whole host of hidden sides to the royal. Sunday, during a visit to the Fundación Amigos de Jesús, a daycare in Santiago that cares for children with severe disabilities, Harry showed off his dance moves with a few of the daycare's children to the tune of Katy Perry's "Firework." http://bit.ly/1qaJwCC

SEX AND DRUGS: And rock&roll, per Deadline Hollywood, “In a widely anticipated move, FX has hit the power chord and ordered Denis Leary‘s music comedy Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll to series. The deal just finalized is for 10 episodes to air sometime in 2015 and reunites Leary with the cable network three years after their series Rescue Me ended its seven-season run.” http://bit.ly/1iNJVKy

THE BOSS: Yes, that one, per the New York Times, “An online museum displaying more than 300 pieces of Bruce Springsteen memorabilia is to officially open its figurative doors on Monday. The virtual museum, blindedbythelight.com, is the product of five years of planning, eight years of amassing a collection of thousands of items and more than three decades of adoration for the Boss by the site’s founder, Michael Crane.” http://nyti.ms/VAn22P

AALIYAH: Biopic loses its lead, per Entertainment Weekly, “Lifetime has confirmed that Zendaya Coleman, the 17-year-old best known as the star of Disney Channel’s Shake It Up! and as a breakout on Dancing With the Stars, will no longer be starring in the cable channel’s upcoming Aaliyah biopic, Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B (working title).” http://bit.ly/1r746pd

DO THE RIGHT THING: Of an anniversary and POTUS, per The Insider, “It's not every day that a movie gets a recorded shout out from the leader of the free world. Then again, Do the Right Thing is not just any movie. Spike Lee's career-making flick is ranked the 96th greatest film of all time by the American Film Institute, was declared "culturally significant" by the U.S. Library of Congress, and was selected by a young law student named Barack Obama for his first official date with Michelle.” http://yhoo.it/1k6VDLc{ }

ZIMMERMAN SUIT DROPPED: Judge rules he’s a public figure, per Variety, “A Florida judge has ruled in favor of NBC and dismissed George Zimmerman‘s defamation lawsuit in connection with the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman had filed the suit in December, 2012, for damages from NBC for allegedly portraying him as racist in a series of news reports about the Martin’s death in February, 2012.” http://bit.ly/1iNR3GM

INDIO DOWNEY: Just the facts, per Us Weekly, “It's a tough time for Robert Downey Jr.'s family. The star's son Indio Downey was arrested on Sunday, June 29, while in West Hollywood, Calif. Indio, 20, was allegedly in a car with two other people when the vehicle was pulled over by police officers and the actor's son was found with cocaine in his possession.” http://usm.ag/TJPcXQ